Th 


*    NOV  2 


ree 


Important  Movements 


Rev.  W.  A.  Stanton,  D.  D. 


Price,  10  cents  net 


Three 
Important  Movements 


Campbellism,  Mormonism, 
and  Spiritualism 


By 

Rev.  W.  a.  Stanton,  D.  D. 


Philadelphia 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society 
Boston  Chicago  Atlanta 

New  York      St.  Louis  Dallas 


Copyright  1907  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society 

Published  August,  1907 


from  tbc  Society's  own  ptcsa 


Contents 

PAGE 

Introduction  5 

I.  Walter  Scott  7 

II.  The  Redstone  Association  10 

III.  Independent  Churches  13 

IV.  From  1821  until  1827  16 

V.  The  Story  of  the- Mahoning  Association,  1827 

TO  1829  24 

VI.  Joseph  Smith's  Great  "Find"  33 

VII.  Sidney  RiGDON  was  Joseph  Smith's  "Angel"  .  36 

VIII.  Spaulding's  Oberlin  Manuscript  41 

IX.  Conclusion  46 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/threeinnportantmoOOstan 


Three 
Important  Movements 


Introduction 

In  the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century- 
three  movements  have  an  important  place.  Each 
was  claimed  by  its  leaders  to  be  a  reformation  of 
religion.  The  earliest  was  led  by  Alexander  and 
Thomas  Campbell,  father  and  son,  and  Walter  Scott. 
It  gave  to  the  world  the  "  Christian  Church,"  the 
"  Disciples,"  or  as  they  are  called  by  some,  the 
"  Campbellites."  The  leaders  of  the  second  move- 
ment were  Sidney  Rigdon  and  Joseph  Smith ;  the 
result  is  Mormonism,  with  its  two  divisions  of  those 
who  practise  polygamy  and  those  who  do  not. 
Thirdly  came  "  Spiritualism,"  which  was  born  in  its 
modern  clothes  with  the  rappings  "  of  the  Fox 
sisters.  With  the  last  this  paper  has  nothing  to  do. 
The  two  prior  movements,  however,  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  religious  history  of  Pittsburgh  and 
vicinity,  are  of  peculiar  local  and  general  interest. 

The  writer  has  conscientiously  tried  to  be  true 
to  facts  as  revealed  by  original  manuscripts,  by  the 

5 


Three  Important  Movements 


literature  of  the  two  "  peoples,"  and  by  personal 
interviews  with  a  few  still  living  who  were  eye- 
witnesses of  some  of  these  things.  A  citizen  of 
Pittsburgh  has  decided  advantages  in  writing  this 
story. 

It  has  never  before  been  told  as  a  continuous 
narrative.  We  have  Baptist  history,  Disciple  his- 
tory, and  Mormon  history,  but  nowhere  are  said 
histories  published  in  such  a  way  as  that  in  which 
this  essay  presents  them.  That  those  who  were 
once  Baptists  became  the  founders  of  the  Chris- 
tian "  denomination  is  well  known,  but  that  one  of 
those  "  founders  "  made  the  "  Christian  reforma- 
tion "  his  half-way  house  in  passing  from  the  Bap- 
tists to  the  Mormons  is  not  so  well  known.  It  is 
still  less  known  that  he,  and  not  Joseph  Smith,  was 
the  real  originator  and  theological  father  of  Mor- 
monism.  The  scene  of  action  is  Pittsburgh,  Pa., 
and  its  adjacent  territory.  The  alleged  discovery  of 
the  "  golden  leaves  "  by  Smith  at  Manchester,  N.  Y., 
was  a  mere  geographical  incident. 

The  "  Disciples  of  Christ "  are  now  busily  en- 
gaged in  preparations  for  the  centennial  celebration 
of  the  publication  of  Thomas  Campbell's  "  Declara- 
tion and  Address,"  which  they  regard  as  the  real  be- 
ginning of  their  "  restoration  movement."  This 
centennial  convention  is  to  be  held  in  Pittsburgh 
in  1909.  The  reader  will  note  that  Mr.  Campbell 
was  not  immersed  until  181 2,  and  then  by  a  Baptist 

6 


Walter  Scott 


minister;  in  1813  he  and  his  father  became  mem- 
bers of  a  Baptist  Association,  and  he  at  least 
nominally  remained  a  Baptist  until  1829,  when  the 
Mahoning  Baptist  Association  formally  disbanded  as 
a  Baptist  organization.  It  must  be  true  then  that 
for  twenty  years  a  cuckoo's  egg  was  in  a  Baptist 
nest,  that  the  laying  of  the  egg  is  to  be  celebrated 
rather  than  its  hatching.  Mr.  Rigdon's  egg  was  in 
the  same  Baptist  nest,  but  matured  more  quickly. 
Its  nature  was  discovered  in  about  a  year,  and  it  was 
rolled  out.  With  its  new  environment  it  took  four 
more  years  to  hatch  out  and  be  claimed  by  Joseph 
Smith  as  his  bird. 

But  these  things  will  reveal  themselves  farther 
on  in  the  essay.    Now  for  the  story. 

/.  Walter  Scoii 

Walter  Scott  was  born  October  31,  1796,  in 
Moffat,  Dumfriesshire,  Scotland.  He  was  gradu- 
ated by  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  intended 
to  enter  the  Presbyterian  ministry.  In  181 8  he  came 
to  New  York  City,  had  a  brief  Latin  tutorship  on 
Long  Island,  and  on  May  7,  18 19,  reached  Pitts- 
burgh, Pa.  There  he  became  assistant  to  George 
Forrester,  a  fellow-Scotchman,  who  had  an  academy. 

While  teaching,  Forrester  had  gathered  a  little 
company  of  "  baptized  believers "  and  organized 
them  into  an  independent  church.  They  were  mostly 
humble  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish  people;  they  met 

7 


Three  Important  Movements 


in  the  courthouse,  and  had  no  relation  to  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  which  was  organized  in  1812. 

By  the  influence  of  Mr.  Forrester  and  his  church, 
Walter  Scott  was  led  to  such  a  study  of  the  New 
Testament  that  he  was  immersed  by  Forrester  and 
joined  his  church.  Not  long  after,  while  bathing 
in  the  Allegheny  River,  Mr.  Forrester  was  drowned. 
Scott  became  principal  of  the  academy  and  leader 
of  the  church.  He  also  came  into  possession  of 
much  of  Forrester's  library,  which  contained  the 
writings  of  the  Haldane  brothers,  of  Sandeman, 
Glas,  Carson,  and  Wardlaw.  Mr.  Scott  always 
acknowledged  great  helpfulness  from  these  books. 

The  church  was  known  as  "  Forrester's  church," 
so  far  as  it  had  a  name  at  all.  For  a  short  time  the 
kiss  of  salutation  was  given,  and  they  w^ere  nick- 
named "  Kissing  Baptists."  This  custom,  as  well 
as  "  feet  washing,"  was  soon  abandoned.  Among 
the  members  were  some  families  that  in  after  years 
became  prominent  in  the  Disciples'  church — the 
Darsies,  Erretts,  and  McLarens. 

In  1820  Mr.  Scott  received  a  pamphlet  issued 
by  a  small  congregation  in  New  York  City,  com- 
posed mainly  of  Scotch  Baptists,  and  holding  many 
of  the  views  of  the  Haldanes.  Scott's  biographer, 
William  Baxter,  says :  "  In  this  tract  were  the  germs 
of  what  was  years  afterward  insisted  upon  by  Scott 
in  his  plea  for  baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and 
also  by  Alexander  Campbell  in  his  celebrated  '  Ext^a 

8 


Walter  Scott 


on  Remission/ "  The  tract  was  not  seen  by 
Campbell  until  after  Scott  had  read  it. 

Mr.  Scott  was  so  influenced  by  it  that  he  closed 
his  school  and  went  to  New  York  to  see  those  who 
had  issued  it.  He  confesses  that  he  was  sadly  dis- 
appointed in  finding  that  their  practice  was  far  be- 
hind their  doctrines.  For  at  least  three  months  he 
remained  among  them,  but  could  not  persuade  them 
to  conform  their  practice  to  their  tract.  He  went 
^  thence  to  Paterson,  N.  J.,  and  found  another  com- 
pany of  independent  believers,  but  he  could  not 
agree  with  them.  Still  journeying,  he  came  to  Bal- 
timore, where,  he  says,  "  I  found  a  few  professors 
of  religion  in  a  disorganized  condition,  but  nothing 
to  encourage  me  to  labor  among  them."  The  church 
was  kept  alive  by  two  men  named  Carmen  and 
Ferguson,  from  whom  he  learned  of  a  small  body 
of  worshipers  in  Washington  to  whom  he  thought 
he  might  be  of  some  advantage.  He  says :  "  I  went 
thither,  and  having  searched  them  up,  I  discovered 
them  so  sunken  in  the  mire  of  Calvinism  that  they 
refused  to  reform;  and  so  finding  no  pleasure  in 
them,  I  left  them."  In  1821  Mr.  Scott  returned 
to  Pittsburgh,  walking  from  Washington,  feeling 
that  his  itinerary  had  accomplished  little,  if  anything. 

He  took  up  his  abode  with  the  father  of  Robert 
Richardson,  who  afterwards  became  the  biographer 
of  Alexander  Campbell,  and  whose  aged  sister  Jane, 
the  writer  of  this  paper  served  as  pastor  from  1890 

9 


Three  Important  Movements 


until  her  death,  in  1895.  In  Mr.  Richardson's  house 
Scott  reopened  his  school,  and  again  took  up  his 
ministry  to  the  little  church  that  met  in  the  court- 
house. His  school  soon  increased  from  fifteen  to 
one  hundred  and  forty  pupils.  He  desired  daily  to 
read  and  teach  the  New  Testament  to  the  pupils. 
]Most  of  his  patrons  were  Presbyterians,  and  pre- 
ferred that  the  Westminster  Catechism  should  be 
taught.  There  was  some  discussion,  and  it  was 
finally  decided  to  lay  aside  all  catechisms  and  only 
read  the  Testament  on  Saturdays. 

During  this  winter  of  1 821-1822  Walter  Scott, 
then  twenty-five  years  old,  first  met  Alexander 
Campbell,  who  was  ten  years  older.  From  that 
meeting  we  turn  to  a  chapter  of  early  Baptist  history 
in  and  about  Pittsburgh  that  is  essential  to  an 
understanding  of  events  that  are  to  follow. 

//.  The  'Redstone  Association 

This  Association  was  organized  at  Garrard's  Ford, 
October  7,  1776.^  It  was  called  the  Annual  Asso- 
ciation until  1796.  There  was  then  but  one  other 
Baptist  Association  in  Pennsylvania — the  Philadel- 
phia, organized  in  1707.  In  1809  the  Redstone  As- 
sociation had  thirty-three  churches,  with,  one  thou- 
sand three  hundred  and  twenty-three  members.  In 

1  The  churches  were  Great  Bethel  (now  Uniontown),  Goshen 
(Garrard's  Ford),  Ten  Mile  (now  North  Ten  Mile),  Turkey  Foot  in 
Somerset  County,  Yough  (first  formed  on  the  Yough  River),  Pike 
Run  (now  extinct).    John  Corbly,  Moderator;  Wm.  Wood,  Clerk, 

10 


The  Redstone  Association 


the  year  1808  Thomas  Campbell  organized  a  com- 
pany of  believers  at  Brushy  Fork  into  what  he  called 
"  The  Christian  Association  of  Washington."  He 
and  his  son  Alexander  were  then  Presbyterians,  and 
desired  this  body  to  be  admitted  to  membership  in 
the  Pittsburgh  Presbytery.  Learning  that  the  Pres- 
bytery would  not  admit  them  as  a  "  Christian  As- 
sociation," they  reorganized  as  a  church  in  May, 
1809,  and  in  Ocober,  1810,  applied  to  the  Presbytery 
for  admission.  Their  application  was  refused.  One 
year  and  a  half  later,  June  12,  1812,  Alexander 
Campbell  was  immersed  by  a  Baptist  minister  named 
Mathias  Luce.  The  next  year,  September,  181 3,  he 
and  his  father,  who  had  also  been  recently  immersed, 
were  received  into  the  Redstone  Baptist  Association. 

In  1855  Rev.  James  Estep,  M.  d.,  preached  two 
sermons  in  the  Peter's  Creek  Baptist  church,  near 
Pittsburgh,  commemorating  the  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  his  ministry.  Doctor  Estep  was  born  in  1782 
and  died  in  1861.  He  was  baptized  in  1802  into 
the  membership  of  the  Peter's  Creek  church  by 
Elder  David  PhilHps,  who  also  baptized  Sidney 
Rigdon  into  the  membership  of  the  same  church. 
Doctor  Estep  first  met  the  Campbells  at  the  Asso- 
ciation the  year  in  which  they  were  received. 
He  says :  "  They  then  maintained  with  firmness 
and  stability  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  Cal- 
vinistic  school,  but  refused  to  acknowledge  any 
Confession  of  Faith;  at  the  same  time  they  agreed 


Three  Important  Movements 


to  submit  to  the  most  rigid  examination  of  their 
doctrinal  principles  that  the  Association  or  any  of 
its  members  might  think  proper  to  make.  A  care- 
ful examination  was  made,  and  they  were  received 
into  the  Association."  The  Association  appointed 
Thomas  Campbell  to  write  the  annual  letter,  the 
subject  assigned  being  "  The  Trinity  of  Persons 
in  the  Godhead."  Doctor  Estep  thought  the  letter 
he  presented  on  this  subject  was  "  an  able  and  sound 
production,"  but  he  says  that  Mr.  Brownlee  of 
Uniontown  objected  to  it. 

The  same  year  in  which  Alexander  Campbell  was 
immersed,  1812,  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Pitts- 
burgh was  organized.  Four  years  later  the  Red- 
stone Association  met  at  Cross  Creek,  Brook 
County,  Virginia.  Alexander  Campbell  preached 
the  annual  sermon  from  Rom.  8  :  3,  4.  It  was 
published,  and  evoked  severe  criticism. 

In  1816  the  Minutes  of  the  Association  show  but 
one  Baptist  church  in  Pittsburgh.  It  had  only  eight 
members,  and  sent  as  its  messenger  B.  B.  Newton. 

The  following  interesting  reading  is  taken  from 
the  Minutes  of  that  year: 

7.  A  letter  was  presented  by  Brother  T.  Campbell,  from 
a  number  of  baptized  professors  in  the  city  of  Pittsburgh, 
requesting  union  as  a  church  to  this  Association. 

8.  Voted,  that  as  this  letter  is  not  presented  according 
to  the  constitution  of  this  Association,  the  request  cannot 
be  granted. 

12 


Independent  Churches 


9.  Voted,  that  Brother  Campbell  be  invited  to  take  a 
seat  in  this  Association. 

10.  Voted,  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  wait  upon 
the  persons  mentioned  in  the  seventh  article,  to  investi- 
gate the  subject  of  their  letter.  Brethren  D.  Phillips, 
Luce,  and  Pritchard  are  the  committee  to  attend  in  Pitts- 
burgh, on  the  Saturday  preceding  the  first  Lord's  Day  in 
November. 

The  "  baptized  professors  "  whom  Thomas  Camp- 
bell sought  to  bring  into  the  Association  v^ere  a 
company  who  met  regularly  in  his  schoolroom,  on 
Liberty  Street,  in  Pittsburgh.  In  seeking  member- 
ship they  failed  to  acknowledge  conformity  to  any 
articles  of  faith,  and  declared  adherence  to  the  Scrip- 
tures only.  While  the  Baptists  themselves  accepted 
the  Scriptures  as  a  sufficient  rule  for  faith  and  prac- 
tice, the  Baptists  of  the  Redstone  Association  had 
already  learned  that  a  rejection  of  any  formulated 
statement  as  to  what  the  Scriptures  taught  was  to 
be  regarded  with  suspicion,  and  might  open  the  way 
for  personal  interpretations  not  at  all  in  harmony 
with  the  Scriptures  as  the  Baptists  understood  them. 
This  company  of  "  baptized  professors  "  was  dis- 
tinct from  the  company  to  which  Walter  Scott  after- 
ward preached.  They  had  been  gathered  by  Mr. 
Campbell  himself. 

///.  Independent  Churches 

From  1 816  to  1821  there  were  at  least  three 
independent  churches   in   Pittsburgh,  having  no 

13 


Three  Important  Movements 


affiliation  with  any  denomination.  One  was  that  or- 
ganized by  George  Forrester  and  continued  by 
Walter  Scott.  Dr.  Robert  Richardson,  a  pupil  of 
both  of  these  men,  says  of  Forrester :  "  He  was  a 
Haldanean  preacher  and  an  immersionist."  Walter 
Scott's  eldest  daughter,  Mrs.  William  Church,  of 
Pittsburgh,  says  that  her  father's  views  were  more 
like  those  of  the  Haldanes  than  of  Sandeman,  and 
that  his  sympathies  were  with  Robert  Haldane. 

Another  of  these  independent  churches  was 
the  one  that  sought  admission  to  the  Redstone 
Association  through  Thomas  Campbell. 

The  third  was  known  as  Tassey's  church.  It  was 
organized  by  Robert  Tassey,  an  Irishman,  who  had 
been  educated  for  the  ministry  in  one  of  Haldane's 
schools  in  the  old  country,  but  who,  upon  coming 
to  Pittsburgh,  went  into  business.  He  was  not  an 
immersionist,  and  would  not  therefore  have  been  in 
sympathy  with  either  Campbell  or  Forrester.  He 
gathered  a  few  people,  who  met  for  weekly  com- 
munion and  worship.  One  of  his  flock  was  Samuel 
Church,  who  had  been  immersed  by  Scott,  and  who 
will  be  referred  to  again.  These  three  independent 
churches  were  Haldanean.  It  was  out  of  them  that 
the  Disciple  denomination  in  and  about  Pittsburgh 
secured  its  leaders  a  few  years  later.  The  children 
and  grandchildren  of  the  people  in  them  are  to-day 
among  the  best-known  members  of  the  Disciple 
churches  in  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny  City.  These 

14 


Independent  Churches 


facts  hardly  justify  the  conclusions  reached  by  Pro- 
fessor Whitsitt,  formerly  of  the  Southern  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary,  in  his  book,  Origin  of  the 
Disciples  of  Christ  (Campbellites)."  He  concludes 
that  they  are  an  "  offshoot "  of  the  Sandemanians 
of  Scotland.  It  is  true  that  Campbell,  Scott,  and 
Forrester  were  all  Scotchmen,  and  that  in  some 
things  they  believed  as  the  Sandemanians  did.  Doc- 
tor Whitsitt  enumerates  fifteen  items  of  Sande- 
manian  doctrine  and  practice;  he  shows  that  four 
of  those  items  correspond  to  four  peculiarities  of 
the  Disciples.  In  two  other  instances  he  sees  a 
fancied  similarity,  but  it  is  extremely  doubtful 
whether  it  is  not  wholly  a  fancy.  The  Disciples  of 
to-day  do  not  require  "  mutual  exhortation  as  a 
regular  part  of  religious  worship,"  nor  do  they  "  ex- 
clude all  but  communicants  from  the  public  services 
of  the  church."  In  the  remaining  nine  particulars, 
of  the  fifteen  stated  by  Doctor  Whitsitt,  there  is  ab- 
solutely no  resemblance  whatever  to  present  Disciple 
practice  or  teaching. 

A  resemblance  in  four  points  out  of  fifteen,  and 
those  four  not  vital,  will  hardly  justify  us  in  term- 
ing one  an  offshoot "  of  the  other.  Of  course 
Doctor  Whitsitt  could  not  have  referred  to  any  or- 
ganic relation  between  the  Sandemanians  and  the 
Disciples.  Speaking  organically,  if  the  Disciples 
were  an  "  offshoot  "  of  any  religious  body,  it  was 
of  the  Baptists.    They  were  in  organic  union  with 

15 


Three  Important  Movements 


the  Baptists  of  western  Pennsylvania  and  eastern 
Ohio  until  fellowship  was  withdrawn  from  them; 
first  by  the  Redstone  Association,  in  1826;  after 
that  by  the  Beaver  Association,  in  1828;  and  in 
1832  by  the  Dover  Association,  in  Virginia. 

Campbell  and  Scott  always  insisted  that  their 
teachings  were  the  result  of  unprejudiced,  prayerful, 
personal  investigation  of  the  New  Testament.  Their 
descendants  and  the  descendants  of  their  contem- 
poraries who  studied  with  them  have  given  me  the 
testimony  of  personal  knowledge  as  to  the  truthful- 
ness of  that  claim.  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  it.  I 
am  perfectly  willing  to  admit  that  Walter  Scott  read 
Sandeman's  writings ;  but  so  did  he  read  Haldane's, 
Carson's,  and  Wardlaw's.  The  surviving  children 
of  Scott  and  of  original  members  of  his  Pittsburgh 
church  tell  me  that  he  was  in  sympathy  with  the 
teachings  of  Haldane  rather  than  of  Sandeman.  At 
the  same  time  they  insist  that  the  New  Testament 
was  studied  by  their  parents  more  than  were  any 
liuman  books.  In  their  homes,  as  families ;  in  their 
places  of  meeting,  as  an  organization,  they  would 
.^■pend  hour  after  hour,  night  after  night,  in  the  study 
of  ^he  New  Testament. 

IV.  From  1821  until  1827 

We  return  to  the  meeting  between  Walter  Scott 
and  Alexander  Campbell  in  the  winter  of  1821-1822. 
To  their  mutual  surprise  and  pleasure  they  found 

16 


From  1821  Until  1827 


that  they  entertained  the  same  convictions  as  to 
much  that  each  thought  he  was  alone  in  beUeving. 
Especially  were  they  agreed  as  to  the  remedy  for 
the  evils  of  sectarianism  that  was  then  so  rampant. 

Pittsburgh's  First  Baptist  Church  was  then  nine 
years  old.  It  had  had  three  pastors :  Edward  Jones, 
from  1812  till  1816;  Elder  Obadiah  Newcomb,  from 
that  time  till  181 8;  and  Elder  John  Davis,  of  Eng- 
land, until  1 82 1.  Alexander  Campbell  had  supplied 
the  pulpit  at  times,  and  through  his  influence  the 
church  called  Rev.  Sidney  Rigdon. 

Mr.  Rigdon  was  born  February  19,  1793,  on  a 
farm  about  twelve  miles  south  of  Pittsburgh,  near 
Library.  He  was  baptized  into  the  membership  of 
Peter's  Creek  church.  May  31,  18 17,  by  Elder 
David  Phillips.  In  a  sermon  on  "  Mormonism  Ex- 
posed," by  Rev.  Samuel  Williams,  who  was  a  suc- 
cessor of  Rigdon  in  the  pastorate  of  the  First 
Church,  the  author  says,  "  There  was  so  much  of  the 
miraculous  about  Rigdon's  conversion,  and  so  much 
parade  about  his  profession,  that  the  pious  and  dis- 
cerning pastor  entertained  serious  doubts,  at  the 
time,  in  regard  to  the  genuineness  of  the  work." 
Rigdon  soon  began  to  put  himself  forward,  sought 
preeminence,  and  well-nigh  supplanted  his  faithful 
pastor.  Elder  Phillips  said,  As  long  as  Rigdon 
lives  he  will  be  a  curse  to  the  church  of  Christ." 
At  the  time  of  his  call  to  Pittsburgh  he  was  living 
in  Warren,  Ohio.  He  had  learned  the  trade  of 
B  17 


Three  Important  Movements 


printer,  but  later  had  been  ordained  in  Ohio,  and  at 
one  time  was  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  at  Sharon, 
Pa.  His  pastorate  in  Pittsburgh  began  January  28, 
1822.  The  church  then  had  ninety-six  members,  and 
that  year  made  its  first  appHcation  for  a  charter.  In 
the  Hst  of  trustees  signing  the  appHcation  the  first 
name  was  Sidney  Rigdon.  The  charter  was  ap- 
proved by  Attorney-General  Thomas  Elder,  October 
23;  seven  days  later  by  the  Supreme  Judges,  Wil- 
liam Tilghman  and  John  B.  Gibson,  and  was  en- 
rolled December  6,  1822.  At  this  time  the  church 
worshiped  in  a  frame  meeting-house  at  the  northeast 
corner  of  Grant  Street  and  Third  Avenue. 

The  Redstone  Association  met  in  Pittsburgh  in 
September,  1822.  Both  of  the  Campbells  were  pres- 
ent and  preached  their  new  doctrines.  From  that 
time  on  Rigdon  preached  as  the  Campbells  did. 
There  was  a  strong  opposition  on  the  part  of  a  mi- 
nority. Finally  fifteen  members,  including  the 
church  clerk  and  one  deacon,  were  excluded  for  pro- 
testing against  the  preaching  of  the  pastor.  They 
went  to  the  schoolroom  of  Rev.  John  Winter,  over  a 
harness  shop  on  Wood  Street,  reorganized,  and  held 
services  during  the  winter  of  1822-1823.  Mr.  Win- 
ter, a  regular  Baptist  minister,  preached  to  them 
every  other  Sunday;  the  alternate  Sunday  he 
preached  at  Bull  Creek.  In  April,  1823,  he  moved 
to  Bull  Creek,  but  returned  to  Pittsburgh  semi- 
monthly  and    continued   his   preaching.  These 

18 


From  182  i  Until  1827 


excluded  people  had  meanwhile  changed  their  place 
of  meeting  to  a  brick  Methodist  meeting-house  on 
First  Street,  near  Smithfield  Street.  Under  the  di- 
rections of  Mr.  Winter  the  fifteen  wrote  a  carefully 
prepared  paper,  protesting  against  their  exclusion, 
claiming  to  be  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Pitts- 
burgh, and  asserting  that  the  majority  had  departed 
from  the  principles  of  Baptists,  were  no  longer 
a  Baptist  church,  and  had  neither  moral  nor 
legitimate  right  to  the  church  property. 

The  following  specifications  were  a  part  of  the 
protest.    Rigdon  was  charged  with  teaching — 

1.  That  Christians  are  not  under  obligations  to 
keep  the  moral  law,  it  having  been  abolished  by  our 
Saviour. 

2.  That  the  Jewish  dispensation  was  not  the  best 
one  that  God  might  have  given  to  them,  for  it  had 
made  them  threefold  more  the  children  of  hell  than 
they  were  before. 

3.  That  a  change  of  heart  consists  merely  in  a 
change  of  views  and  of  baptism. 

4.  That  there  is  no  such  thing  as  religious 
experience. 

5.  That  saving  faith  is  a  mere  crediting  of  the 
testimony  given  by  the  evangelists,  such  as  all  have 
in  the  truth  of  any  other  history. 

6.  That  it  is  wrong  to  use  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
inasmuch  as  the  reign  of  Christ  had  already 
commenced. 

19 


Three  Important  Movements 


In  addition  to  these  charges  they  said  that  Mr. 
Rigdon  emphasized  the  restoration  of  the  ancient 
order  of  things,  especially  with  reference  to  the  duty 
of  bringing  one's  possessions  and  laying  them  at  the 
apostles'  feet.  At  this  point  the  hard-headed  Bap- 
tist fathers  thought  they  smelled  a  rat,  and  believed 
that  he  purposed  devouring  their  cheese.  Rigdon 
preached  this  doctrine  publicly  and  urged  it  in  his 
pastoral  visitations.  He  condemned  the  regular  min- 
istry because  they  preached  for  a  salary  and  said 
"  they  milched  the  goats."  This  was  also  a  reflection 
upon  those  to  whom  they  preached,  calling  them 
"  goats,"  and  not  sheep.  Commenting  on  this,  Mr. 
Williams  said :  "  While  Rigdon  denounced  others 
for  milching  them,  he  could  without  difficulty  take 
down  the  goats,  hide,  horns,  and  all." 

This  protest  was  presented  July  ii,  1823. 

A  mutual  council  was  called,  and  met  October  11, 
1823.  Elder  Frey  was  moderator,  and  Ephraim 
Estep,  clerk.  The  council  decided  that  the  minority 
were  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Pittsburgh,  and 
were  entitled  to  the  property.  Mr.  Rigdon  was 
found  guilty  of  "  holding  and  teaching  the  doctrine 
of  baptismal  regeneration  and  many  other  abom- 
inable heresies."  He  was  thereupon  excluded  from 
the  church  and  deposed  from  the  Baptist  ministry. 

He  and  his  sympathizers  surrendered  the  property 
without  further  resistance ;  the  church  found  itself 
back  in  its  home  from  which  it  had  been  driven  a 

20 


From  1821  Until  1827 


year  before.  Mr.  Winter  preached  for  them  a 
year  longer,  and  after  that  gave  his  whole  time  to 
the  church  at  Bull  Creek. 

In  Richardson's  "  Memoirs  of  Alexander  Camp- 
bell," Vol.  11.,  p.  99,  he  says :  "  A  greater  degree 
of  intimacy  took  place  between  Walter  Scott  and 
Rigdon  and  their  respective  congregations,  so  that 
in  1824  a  union  was  consummated  between  them. 
A  few  members  of  the  Baptist  church  who  refused 
to  unite  were  then  recognized  by  the  committee  of 
the  Association  as  the  only  legitimate  Baptist  church 
in  Pittsburgh."  This  statement  is  misrepresenting. 
That  there  was  a  union  between  Scott's  church 
and  Rigdon's  followers  is  not  to  be  denied.  But 
if  it  took  place  in  1824,  as  Richardson  says  it  did, 
it  was  after,  and  not  before  the  official  recognition 
of  the  minority.  It  was  also  after  the  exclusion 
of  Rigdon  from  the  Baptist  church.  The  simple 
fact  was  that  after  their  exclusion  Rigdon  and  his 
followers  joined  the  church  of  which  Walter  Scott 
was  pastor.  On  the  other  hand,  if  Doctor  Richard- 
son has  made  a  mistake  in  his  date  of  1824  and  is 
correct  in  the  rest  of  his  statement,  we  know  that 
the  minority,  who  protested  and  did  not  unite  with 
Walter  Scott's  congregation,  were  officially  recog- 
nized as  the  Baptist  church.  Whichever  the  mistake 
Richardson  made,  there  never  was  a  union  between 
Walter  Scott's  church  and  the  First  Baptist  Church 
of  Pittsburgh.    This  settles  the  historic  continuity 


Three  Important  Movements 


of  a  Baptist  church  in  Pittsburgh  from  1812  until 
now.^ 

Within  a  year  after  his  exclusion,  Rigdon  went 
to  the  Western  Reserve.  While  in  Pittsburgh  he 
acknowledged  to  a  deacon  of  the  Baptist  church 
that  he  "  made  up  his  experience  when  he  joined 
the  Peter's  Creek  church  in  order  to  be  received. ' 

Elder  Williams  says :  "  He  preached  wherever  he 
could  and  did  all  the  mischief  he  could.  In  a  num- 
ber of  instances  he  succeeded  in  forming  a  party  in 
churches  where  he  had  been  allowed  to  preach  and 
by  stratagem  or  force  succeeded  in  securing  to  said 
parties  the  property  of  the  church.  Between  the 
time  of  his  exclusion  by  the  Baptists  and  his  avowal 
of  Mormonism  he  propagated  the  doctrines  of  Alex- 
ander Campbell  and  circulated  his  books  and  peri- 
odicals. His  leading  error  was  baptismal  regenera- 
tion. Then  came  Arianism,  then  a  belittling  of  the 
Holy  Spirit." 

Two  months  before  Rigdon's  exclusion,  finding 

*The  original  Baptist  frame  raeeting-house  of  Pittsburgh  was  re- 
placed by  a  brick  one  during  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Samuel  Williams 
in  1833.  The  brick  one  was  destroyed  in  the  great  fire  of  1845,  and 
another  brick  one  built  on  the  same  site.  In  1867  a  chapel  was 
built  on  Fourth  Avenue,  and  in  1873  the  First  and  Union  churches 
consolidated,  forming  the  Fourth  Avenue  Baptist  Church;  the 
chapel  was  added  to  on  the  Ross  Street  side,  and  the  present  large 
edifice  was  the  result.  The  abandoned  brick  structure,  at  the 
northeast  corner  of  Third  and  Grant,  was  used  by  the  Universalists 
from  1867  until  1880;  it  then  served  as  a  synagogue  for  about  ten 
years,  and  after  that  as  "  Barracks  for  the  Salvation  Army."  In 
1896  it  was  reconstructed,  and  became  a  business  block. 

22 


From  1821  Until  1827 


so  little  sympathy  in  the  Redstone  Association,  Alex- 
ander Campbell  transferred  his  membership  and  that 
of  the  Wellsburg  (Virginia)  Baptist  church,  where 
he  was  a  member,  to  the  Mahoning  (Ohio)  Asso- 
ciation, many  of  the  churches  of  which  were 
trending  toward  his  views. 

On  July  4,  1823,  he  issued  the  first  number  of 
"  The  Christian  Baptist."  He  purposed  calling  it 
"  The  Christian,"  but  deferred  to  the  opinion  of 
Walter  Scott,  who  thought  that  the  insertion  of  the 
word  "  Baptist "  would  "  disarm  prejudice  and  se- 
cure a  wider  circulation,  especially  as  it  was 
expected  to  circulate  mainly  among  the  Baptists, 
among  whom  the  elements  of  reform  had  for  some 
time  been  slowly  and  silently  spreading."  ^ 

The  first  four  numbers  had  a  series  of  articles  by 
Mr.  Scott,  entitled  "  A  Divinely  Authorized  Plan  of 
Teaching  the  Christian  Religion."  The  paper  con- 
tinued seven  years,  and  then  gave  way  to  "  The 
Millennial  Harbinger."  Its  avowed  purpose  was 
"  chiefly  to  reform  the  church  and  unite  the  various 
parties." 

In  January,  1823,  Walter  Scott  married  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Covenanter  church,  Miss  Sarah  Whitsett, 
who  afterward  joined  her  husband's  congregation. 
In  1826  he  moved  to  Steuben ville,  Ohio,  where  he 
preached  to  a  small  and  independent  congregation. 
After  his  departure  serious  dissensions  arose  among 

»  See  Baxter's  "  Life  of  Scott." 

23 


Three  Important  Movements 


those  whom  he  left  in  Pittsburgh.  Among  his  early 
converts  was  a  young  Covenanter,  Samuel  Church, 
then  twenty-three  years  old.  He  had  been  baptized 
by  Scott,  but  had  joined  John  Tassey's  church,  al- 
ready mentioned.  When  dissensions  threatened 
their  existence,  Mr.  Church  came  to  the  rescue  of 
Mr.  Scott's  former  congregation  and  restored  har- 
mony. It  afterward  became  the  First  Christian 
(or  Disciple)  Church  of  Pittsburgh.  Samuel 
Church  became  one  of  the  leading  ministers  among 
the  Disciples.  A  son  and  a  daughter  of  his  married 
a  daughter  and  a  son  of  Walter  Scott. 

V.  The  Story  of  the  Mahoning  Association 
1827  to  1829 

We  now  leave  Pittsburgh  to  follow  the  fortunes  of 
Scott,  Campbell,  and  Rigdon.  In  August,  1819, 
ten  churches  from  the  Beaver  Association  organized 
the  Mahoning  Association  on  the  basis  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Confession  of  Faith.^  By  1827  it  had  in- 
creased to  sixteen  churches,  all  in  the  Western 
Reserve  except  the  Wellsburg  church  that  Mr. 
Campbell  joined  four  years  before.  These  sixteen 
churches  had  four  hundred  and  ninety-two  members 

^  The  Beaver  Association  was  organized  at  Providence,  Beaver 
County,  Pa.,  Aug.  25,  1809.  It  extended  from  Clarion  County,  Penn- 
sylvania, to  Wooster,  Ohio,  and  from  Virginia  to  Lake  Erie.  The 
Mahoning  and  Mohegan  Associations  were  both  organized  out  of  it 
in  1 81 9,  and  left  it  with  twelve  churches  and  three  hundred  and 
forty-one  members. 


24 


The  Mahoning  Association 


when  they  made  their  annual  report  to  the  Associa- 
tion, which  met  at  New  Lisbon,  August  23,  1827. 
Among  them  were  the  churches  at  Youngstown, 
Hubbard,  Hiram,  Warren,  and  Palmyra.  On  his  way 
to  the  Association  Alexander  Campbell  stopped  at 
Steubenville  and  asked  Walter  Scott  to  accompany 
him.  The  Minutes  record  the  fact  that  the  follow- 
ing teaching  brethren  being  present  were  invited  to 
a  seat  in  the  council :  W^alter  Scott,  Samuel  Holmes, 
William  West,  and  Sidney  Rigdon."  The  sermon 
the  first  evening  was  preached  by  Rigdon,  his  text 
being  the  eighth  chapter  of  John. 

At  that  time  his  home  was  in  Kirtland,  Ohio ;  and 
there  is  circumstantial  evidence  that  even  then  he 
was  in  communication  with  Joseph  Smith,  through 
their  mutual  friend,  Parley  P.  Pratt.  Just  thirty 
days  after  that  sermon  was  preached  the  Book  of 
Mormon "  was  found,  and  a  little  later  the  first 
Mormon  sermon  was  preached  in  Palmyra,  N.  Y., 
by  this  same  Rigdon. 

Alexander  Campbell  seems  to  have  been  the  most 
influential  minister  in  the  Mahoning  Association. 
At  the  New  Lisbon  meeting  he  was  appointed  to 
write  the  corresponding  letter,  to  print  and  distribute 
the  Minutes,  to  write  a  circular  letter  on  itinerant 
preaching,  to  be  read  the  next  year.  He  was  also 
appointed  to  preach  the  annual  sermon  at  the  next 
Association,  which  was  to  meet  at  Warren. 

We  now  come  to  what  proved  to  be  a  very 
25 


Three  Important  Movements 


important  item  of  business.  A  traveling  evangelist 
was  wanted.  It  was  voted  that  "  all  teachers  of 
Christianity  present  be  a  committee  to  nominate  a 
person  to  travel  and  labor  among  the  churches  and 
to  suggest  a  plan  for  the  support  of  the  person  so 
appointed."  When  this  committee  made  its  report 
it  was  as  follows :  "  Brother  Scott  is  a  suitable 
person  for  the  task,  and  he  is  willing,  provided  the 
Association  concur  in  his  appointment,  to  devote 
his  whole  energies  to  the  work." 

The  appointment  was  made.  Mr.  Scott  was  to  re- 
ceive the  contributions  that  might  be  made  for  the 
work  and  report  at  the  next  Association.  The  As- 
sociation adjourned  with  "  the  immersion  of  some 
disciples  in  the  creek,"  and  a  meeting  of  the  brethren 
at  the  Baptist  meeting-house  "  to  break  bread." 

Scott's  biographer  asks,  Is  it  not  very  remark- 
able that  when  a  committee  was  appointed,  composed 
of  preachers  who  were  members  of  the  Association 
and  of  those  who  were  not,  to  choose  an  evangelist 
to  travel  among  the  churches,  that  one  should  be 
selected  who  was  not  a  member  of  the  body,  and 
who  neither  agreed  in  his  religious  views  with  many 
who  selected  him  for  so  important  a  task,  nor  took 
any  pains  to  conceal  this  difference?"  Why  re- 
markable? The  man  chosen  agreed  with  Campbell 
and  Rigdon  in  his  views,  and  they  were  the  most 
influential  men  on  that  committee.  He  was  there 
by  Campbell's  invitation,  and  for  four  years  both 

26 


The  Mahoning  Association 


Campbell  and  Rigdon  had  been  teaching  their  doc- 
trines among  those  churches.  "  In  1825  the  New- 
Lisbon  and  Warren  churches  had  gone  over  to 
Campbellism,"  says  Doctor  Winter.  No,  Mr.  Bax- 
ter, it  was  not  strange  that  Mr.  Scott  was  elected 
associational  evangelist  under  those  circumstances. 
It  was  strange,  however,  that  he  accepted  and  pur- 
sued the  course  that  he  did.  Baxter  admits  that 
Scott  doubted  the  propriety  of  accepting,  and  after 
he  did  accept,  he  doubted  the  propriety  of  pursuing 
the  course  that  he  finally  took.  Those  doubts  did 
him  honor.  But  after  he  did  accept  he  made  up 
his  mind  to  preach  his  peculiar  doctrines  without 
any  reservation.  Wherever  he  made  converts  he 
baptized  them  and  administered  the  Lord^s  Supper. 
I  find  nowhere  any  record  of  his  ordination. 

Among  the  people  who  turned  to  Walter  Scott  in 
large  numbers  were  the  New  Lights.  Most  of  them 
had  been  Baptists,  Presbyterians,  or  Methodists, 
who  had  turned  from  their  respective  churches  and 
united  under  the  one  name  of  "  Christ-isins"  They 
were  often  known  where  they  dwelt  as  "  Open 
Communionists."  One  of  the  "  teaching  brethren  " 
of  the  New  Lights  was  at  the  session  of  the  Mahon- 
ing Association,  and  voted  for  Mr.  Scott  when  he 
was  first  elected  its  evangelist.  That  Association 
seemed  to  give  almost  anybody  a  right  to  sit  and 
vote  in  its  session. 

The  man  was  Joseph  Gaston.  Two  years  after 
27 


Three  Important  Movements 


voting  for  Mr.  Scott,  Gaston  was  baptized  by  him 
for  the  remission  of  sins." 

Was  this  a  re-immersion?  If  so,  his  former  im- 
mersion was  regarded  as  unsatisfactory,  and  prob- 
ably because  it  was  not  for  the  remission  of  sins." 
If  it  was  not  a  re-immersion,  we  see  the  strange 
course  of  a  Baptist  Association  receiving  as  one  of 
its  own  number  a  man  who  not  only  was  not  a 
member  of  a  Baptist  church,  but  who  had  not  even 
been  baptized. 

In  the  Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Knowledge," 
edited  by  Dr.  J.  Newton  Brown,  there  is  an  article  on 
"  The  Disciples  of  Christ,"  written  by  Alexander 
Campbell  in  1833.  Campbell  says :  "  After  some  ten 
years'  debating  and  contending  for  the  Bible  alone 
and  the  apostles'  doctrine  (in  the  Redstone  Associa- 
tion), Alexander  Campbell  and  the  church  to  which 
he  belonged  united  with  the  Mahoning  Association, 
that  Association  being  more  favorable  to  his  views 
of  reform." 

If  that  was  true  in  1823  (when  Campbell  joined 
the  Mahoning  Association),  it  is  easy  to  under- 
stand that  by  1827  Mr.  Scott  found  the  fields  white 
unto  the  harvest.  I  quote  again  from  Mr.  Camp- 
bell's article :  "  Not  till  after  great  numbers  began 
to  act  upon  these  principles  "  (referring  to  his  teach- 
ings in  his  paper,  "The  Christian  Baptist")  "was 
there  any  attempt  towards  separation.  After  the 
Mahoning  Association  appointed  Mr.  Walter  Scott 

28 


The  Mahoning  Association 


an  evangelist,  in  1827,  and  when  great  numbers  be- 
gan to  be  immersed  into  Christ  under  his  labors,  and 
new  churches  began  to  be  erected  by  him  and  other 
laborers  in  the  field,  did  the  Baptist  Associations 
begin  to  declare  non-fellowship  with  the  brethren  of 
the  reformation.  Thus  by  constraint,  not  of  choice, 
they  were  obliged  to  form  societies  out  of  these 
communities  that  split  upon  the  ground  of  adherence 
to  the  apostles'  doctrine."  Having  given  Mr. 
Campbell's  own  version  of  the  situation,  w^e  proceed. 

By  spring,  in  1812,  the  work  of  Mr.  Scott  and  the 
resultant  troubles  in  so  many  Baptist  churches  had 
been  reported  far  and  near.  Alexander  Campbell 
sent  his  father  into  Ohio  to  investigate.  He  went, 
saw,  approved,  and  remained  to  help  Mr.  Scott. 
Meetings  had  been  held  thus  far  in  New  Lisbon, 
East  Fairfield,  Warren,  and  Austintown,  where  a 
church  of  one  hundred  and  ten  members  had  been 
organized  by  Scott. 

Baxter  says,  "  Both  Baptist  houses  of  worship  at 
Warren  and  Hubbard  had  passed  quietly  into  the 
hands  of  the  Disciples,  and  he  went  next  to  Sharon, 
Pa."  This  is  hardly  in  harmony  with  Mr.  Camp- 
bell's statement  as  to  the  beginnings  of  separation, 
for  the  Associational  "  anathemas  "  were  not  pro- 
nounced until  after  this.  I  presume,  however,  that 
so  long  as  meeting-houses  passed  quietly  into  the 
hands  of  the  reformers  they  would  be  in  no  haste 
for  an  organic  separation.  The  testimony  from  these 

29 


Three  Important  ^  Movements 


two  prominent  Disciples  does  not  seem  quite  to 
agree,  or  possibly  one  tells  more  than  the  other. 
However,  when  Mr.  Scott  reached  Sharon  he  held 
meetings,  baptized  converts,  and  departed.  After 
his  departure  the  Baptist  church  refused  to  receive 
these  converts,  on  the  ground  that  they  had  not  been 
before  the  church,  related  their  experience,  and  been 
received  by  the  church  for  baptism.  The  result  was 
a  division  in  the  church.  Thomas  Campbell  was 
sent  for.  He  came  and  in  vain  tried  to  persuade  the 
church  to  receive  them.  In  a  week  or  two  the 
Beaver  (Pa.)  Association  met  in  Sharon  and  in- 
dorsed the  action  of  the  church.  I  think  that  it  was 
in  this  same  year,  June,  1828,  that  the  Beaver  As- 
sociation issued  a  circular  condemning  the  Mahon- 
ing Association  and  Mr.  Campbell  as  disbelievers 
of  many  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
In  their  writings  the  Disciples  refer  to  this  as  the 
Beaver  Anathema."  It  remains  a  fact,  however, 
that  the  Sharon  meeting-house  did  not  "  pass  quietly 
into  the  hands  of  the  Disciples,"  as  William  Baxter 
so  pleasantly  expresses  it.  The  pastor  of  the  War- 
ren church,  when  it  "  passed  quietly  over,"  was  Rev. 
Adam  Bently,  and  he  had  gone  with  the  church. 
He  and  Mr.  Scott  now  went  to  Sharon  and  organ- 
ized a  church  that  Baxter  calls  a  "  Disciple  church," 
and  he  adds  that  "  the  Sharon  people  called  it  a 
Campbellite  church."  About  seventeen  of  its  thirty 
members  were  from  the  Baptist  church. 

30 


The  Mahoning  Association 


The  Mahoning  Association  met  in  Warren  dur- 
ing August,  1828.  It  was  still  a  Baptist  Association 
so  far  as  its  name  went.  Mr.  Scott  was  appointed 
evangelist  for  another  year.  In  1829  the  meeting 
was  in  Austintown.  Then  and  there  the  Association 
formally  voted  to  disband.  Four  of  the  churches 
had  withstood  Mr.  Campbell  and  Mr.  Scott,  and  had 
previously  withdrawn  and  joined  the  Beaver  Asso- 
ciation. When  the  motion  to  disband  was  made  Mr. 
Campbell  rose  to  oppose  it,  but  yielded  to  Mr.  Scott's 
request  not  to  do  so.   It  passed  unanimously. 

Baxter  says :  "  The  action  taken  at  Austintown 
may  be  regarded  as  the  formal  separation  from  the 
Baptists.  .  .  Those  Baptists  who  had  embraced  the 
new  views,  together  with  the  new  converts  made, 
were  called  Campbellites,  and  by  many  Scottites; 
but  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Association,  which 
was  really  brought  about  by  the  efforts  of  Scott, 
they  were  called  Disciples." 

Mr.  Scott  admitted  that  at  his  suggestion  a  Mr. 
John  Henry  had  made  the  motion,  and  at  his  request 
Alexander  Campbell  did  not  oppose  it.  Perhaps  it 
will  not  be  fair  to  judge  a  man  who  lived  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  by  the  principles  of 
interdenominational  comity  that  prevail  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  twentieth  century.  But  to-day  no 
minister  of  the  gospel  could  do  what  Mr.  Scott  did 
in  the  Mahoning  Association  without  meriting  and 
receiving  the  severest  condemnation. 

31 


Three  Important  Movements 


Later  in  life  he  wrote  an  essay,  entitled  "  The 
Parable  of  the  Ships."  By  the  ship  "  The  Church 
of  God "  he  meant  those  independent  Baptists 
who  first  laid  aside  all  human  creeds  and  strove 
to  conform  to  the  primitive  models.  To  another 
ship  he  gave  one  more  sail  than  the  Independent 
Baptists  had.  This  he  called  the  "  Restoration  " ; 
it  represented  the  Disciples.  He  described  the 
"  Regular  Baptist  hull  "  as  having  a  large  chasm 
in  it,  *'  which  Alexander  Campbell  hammered  out 
and  through  which  he  leaped  and  his  associates 
with  him."  In  the  last  paragraph  he  refers 
to  himself  in  these  words,  "  Who  is  that  lean  man 
behind  Alexander  Campbell?  No  names,  sir.  If  he 
leaped  from  the  chasm  first,  bearing  along  with  him 
the  flag  of  the  Union,  he  is  to  be  borne  with." 
This  figure  of  speech  implies  that  he  must  have 
been  a  Regular  Baptist  before  he  made  the  leap. 
The  facts  of  this  paper  conclusively  prove  that  he 
never  was  a  Regular  Baptist.  His  language  is  either 
wholly  figurative  or  he  may  possibly  have  joined 
the  disaffected  church  at  Canfield,  Ohio,  after  his  re- 
moval from  Steubenville  in  the  first  year  of  his 
service  as  associational  evangelist.  This  church  was 
nominally  a  Baptist  church  until  the  Association 
disbanded,  less  than  two  years  later. 

I  have  no  proof  that  he  ever  did  join  it.  It  seems 
necessary  to  guess  that  he  did  in  order  to  explain 
his  language,  for  his  employment  as  an  evangelist 

32 


Joseph  Smith's  Great  "  Find  " 


among  departing  Baptists  would  hardly  justify  him 
in  representing  himself  as  leaping  from  the  Regular 
Baptist  hull  unless  he  regarded  himself  as  being  on 
board  in  the  character  of  an  enemy  who  is  to  aid 
one  of  the  crew  in  scuttling  the  ship. 

In  1835  Mr.  Scott  moved  to  Kentucky.  In  1844 
he  returned  to  Pittsburgh,  where  he  published  The 
Protestant  Unionist,"  a  weekly  paper,  and  became 
the  pastor  of  the  First  Christian  Church  in  Alle- 
gheny City,  December  I,  1848.  The  next  April  his 
wife  died.  The  following  year  he  married  Miss  Annie 
B.  Allen,  of  Mayslick,  Ky.,  and  took  the  principal- 
ship  of  a  woman's  school  in  Covington.  The  second 
wife  lived  but  four  years,  and  at  her  death  he  gave 
up  his  principalship.  He  married  a  third  wife,  Mrs. 
Eliza  Sandige,  of  Mason  County,  Ky.,  and  made 
that  county  his  home  until  his  death,  April  23, 
1861.  By  voice  and  pen  he  never  ceased  to  give 
every  possible  impetus  to  the  progress  of  the  prin- 
ciples he  espoused  when  he  was  first  a  resident  of 
Pittsburgh.  Alexander  Campbell  said  of  him: 
"  Next  to  my  father,  he  was  my  most  cordial  and 
indefatigable  fellow-laborer  in  the  origin  and 
progress  of  the  present  reformation," 

V/.  Joseph  Smith'^  Great  **Fmd** 

When  Rigdon  preached  at  the  Association  in  New 
Lisbon  his  home  was  in  Kirtland,  Ohio.   Just  thirty 
days  after  that  sermon,  in  September,  1827,  Joseph 
c  33 


Three  Important  Movements 


Smith  proclaimed  his  finding  of  "  The  Golden 
Bible,"  better  known  as  The  Book  of  Mormon,"  at 
the  little  village  of  Manchester,  six  miles  from  Pal- 
myra, N.  Y.  Rigdon  soon  went  thither,  professed 
immediate  conversion  to  the  "  find,"  and  straight- 
way preached  the  first  Mormon  sermon.  It  was 
preached  in  Palmyra,  and  showed  a  remarkable 
amount  of  information  for  a  new  convert.  It  was 
said  that  he  seemed  to  know  more  about  it  than 
Smith  himself.  Abundant  reason  for  this  will  be 
shown. 

Smith  claimed  to  have  been  directed  by  an  angel 
to  the  burial-place  of  a  stone  box,  in  which  was  a 
volume  six  inches  thick  and  composed  of  thin  gold 
leaves,  eight  by  seven  inches,  fastened  together  by 
three  gold  rings.    The  writing  on  them  was  called 

Reformed  Egyptian."  There  was  also  a  pair  of 
"  supernatural  spectacles  " ;  two  crystals,  that  Smith 
called  "  Urim  and  Thummim,"  were  set  in  a  silver 
bow.  When  Smith  put  these  on  he  claimed  to  be 
able  to  translate  the  Reformed  Egyptian  language. 
I  have  heard  my  father-in-law,  then  nineteen  years 
old,  and  who  lived  until  1904,  who  knew  Smith,  say 
that  he  was  scarcely  able  to  read  and  could  not  write. 
He  was  a  quick-witted,  lazy,  superstitious  fellow, 
who  spent  his  time  in  digging  for  treasures  and 
locating  springs  for  wells  with  a  divining  rod.  He 
was  just  the  man  for  Rigdon  to  attempt  to  use  as  a 
tool,  although  in  the  long  run  he  proved  too  shrewd 

34 


Joseph  Smith's  Great  "  Find 


for  his  former  master.  It  probably  will  never  be 
known  why  Rigdon  did  not  take  permanent  first 
place  in  Mormonism.  It  is  certain  that  Smith  de- 
veloped better  qualities  of  leadership,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  Rigdon  never  dared  offend  Smith  for  fear 
of  exposure  as  to  their  secret. 

Neither  Smith  nor  Rigdon  had  money  to  publish 
this  Golden  Bible."  They  succeeded  in  interest- 
ing a  well-to-do  farmer  named  Martin  Harris,  who 
furnished  the  means.  OHver  Cowdery  was  em- 
ployed as  an  amanuensis.  He  wrote  what  Smith  dic- 
tated to  him  from  the  farther  side  of  a  concealing 
curtain.  In  1830  the  book  was  printed,  and  with  it 
a  sworn  statement  by  Cowdery,  Harris,  and  a  David 
Whitmer  that  an  angel  of  God  had  shown  them  the 
plates  of  which  the  book  purported  to  be  a  transla- 
tion. Some  years  later  these  three  men  renounced 
Mormonism,  and  declared  said  sworn  statement 
false.  I  once  opened  the  Book  of  Mormon  that  lay 
upon  the  pulpit  in  the  ^lormon  Tabernacle  at  Salt 
Lake  City;  upon  its  page  was  this  sworn  statement 
by  these  three  men,  but  their  recantation  was  not 
there.  The  Mormons  explain  the  disappearance  of 
the  "  golden  leaves  "  by  assuming  that  an  angel  took 
them  away.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  have  only  Jo- 
seph Smith's  word  for  it,  aside  from  the  above 
statement,  that  they  ever  existed.  In  spite  of  this 
a  leading  Mormon  told  me,  as  he  and  I  stood  by 
Brigham  Young's  grave,  that  they  had  two  Bibles 

35 


Three  Important  Movements 


of  equal  authority.  One  contained  the  Old  and  New 
Testament ;  the  other  is  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

V//.  Sidney  'Rigdon  tvas  Joseph 
Smith' 4  *'AngeV' 

Now  we  return  to  Pittsburgh.  In  1761  Solomon 
Spaulding  was  born  in  Ashford,  Conn.,  and  was 
graduated  by  Dartmouth  College  in  1785.  Later 
in  life  he  lived  in  New  Salem  and  Conneaut,  Ohio. 
There  he  wrote  a  manuscript  which  he  called  The 
Manuscript  Found."  He  read  it  to  numerous  of  his 
relatives  and  friends. 

Its  leading  characters  bore  such  names  as  Mor- 
mon, Maroni,  Lamanite,  and  Nephi.  It  divided  the 
population  of  this  continent  into  two  classes,  the 
righteous  and  idolatrous,  and  told  an  imaginary 
story  of  the  discovery  of  their  history  as  recorded  on 
a  manuscript  that  was  centuries  ago  concealed  in 
the  earth.  It  was  full  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars, 
and  presented  a  record  of  the  preaching  of  Chris- 
tianity in  America  during  the  first  century  after 
Christ.  Mr.  Spaulding  being  a  minister  and  fa- 
miliar with  Bible  history,  made  his  romance  cor- 
respond closely  to  the  biblical  records  as  their  sequel. 
In  1 812  he  moved  to  Pittsburgh.  Robert  Patterson 
had  a  printing  establishment  here ;  his  foreman  was 
Silas  Engles ;  his  employee,  and  later  his  partner, 
was  a  Mr.  Lambdin.  Spaulding  desired  Patterson 
to  publish  his  work,  but  was  unable  to  guarantee 

36 


Joseph  Smith's  "  Angel  " 


the  expenses  if  the  book  should  prove  a  failure. 
Patterson  testified  that  he  saw  said  manuscript  and 
told  Engles  to  print  it  if  Spaulding  furnished  se- 
curity for  expenses.  He  farther  testified  that 
Spaulding  was  upable  to  do  so,  and  that  he  supposed 
Engles  finally  returned  the  manuscript  to  its  author. 
Spaulding  moved  to  Amity,  Washington  County, 
Pennsylvania,  in  1814,  and  died  there  in  1816.  Jo- 
seph Miller,  of  Amity,  was  an  intimate  friend  of 
Spaulding.  He  heard  him  read  much  of  his  manu- 
script, and  testified  (see  "  Pittsburgh  Telegraph,"  in 
1879)  to  Spaulding's  telling  him  that  while  he  was 
writing  a  preface  for  the  book  the  manuscript  was 
spirited  away;  that  a  Sidney  Rigdon  was  suspected 
of  taking  it.  Miller  also  said  that  when  he  read  the 
Book  of  Mormon  he  at  once  recognized  Spaulding's 
story.  Redick  McKee,  of  Washington  County, 
bears  the  same  testimony,  and  says  that  Rigdon  was 
employed  in  Patterson's  office.  Some  of  Rigdon's 
friends  deny  that  he  was  ever  employed  there,  but 
Mrs.  R.  J.  Eichbaum,  who  died  in  Pittsburgh  in 
1882,  was  clerk  in  the  Pittsburgh  post-office  from 
181 1  to  1816,  her  father  being  postmaster.  She 
gave  testimony  to  the  intimacy  between  Rigdon  and 
Lambdin,  their  coming  to  the  office  together,  and 
Engles  telling  her  that  Rigdon  was  always  hang- 
ing about  the  printing-office."  It  is  also  a  matter 
of  fact  that  Lambdin  became  Patterson's  business 
partner  in  181 8.    Spaulding's  widow  testified  that 

37 


Three  Important  Movements 


Rigdon  was  connected  with  the  office  in  some  way. 
It  seems  evident  that  Rigdon  was  about  the  office,  to 
say  the  least. 

Six  years  later  he  returned  to  Pittsburgh  as  the 
pastor  of  the  Baptist  church.  Lambdin  died  in 
1825,  Engles  in  1827.  Rigdon's  pastorate  was  while 
both  were  yet  alive,  and  he  was  intimate  with  both. 
Note  particularly  that  the  proclamation  of  Smith's 
"  find  "  was  not  made  until  Lambdin  and  Engles 
were  dead. 

Rev.  John  Winter,  m.  d.,  known  to  many  in 
western  Pennsylvania,  testified  that  he  was  in  Rig- 
don's study  in  Pittsburgh  in  the  winter  of  1822- 1823  ; 
that  Rigdon  took  from  his  desk  a  large  manuscript 
and  said  in  substance,  "  A  Presbyterian  minister, 
Mr.  Spaulding,  whose  health  failed,  brought  this  to 
the  printer  to  see  if  it  would  pay  to  publish  it.  It 
is  a  romance  of  the  Bible."  Rev.  A.  J.  Bonsall,  litt. 
D.,  recently  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Rochester, 
Pa.,  and  now  in  Allegheny,  Pa.,  tells  me  that  Doctor 
Winter,  who  was  his  stepfather,  often  referred  to 
this  incident,  saying  that  the  manuscript  purported 
to  be  a  history  of  the  American  Indian,  and  that 
Rigdon  said  he  got  it  from  the  printers.  Mrs.  Mary 
W.  Irvine,  of  Sharon,  Pa.,  Doctor  Winter's  daugh- 
ter, says :  "  I  have  frequently  heard  my  father  speak 
of  Rigdon's  having  Spaulding's  manuscript ;  that  he 
said  he  got  it  from  the  printer  to  read  as  a  curiosity. 
As  such  he  showed  it  to  my  father,  but  then  seemed 

38 


Joseph  Smith's    Angel  " 


to  have  no  intention  of  using  it,  as  he  evidently 
afterward  did.  Father  always  said  that  Rigdon 
helped  Smith  in  his  scheme  by  revising  and  trans- 
forming this  manuscript  into  the  Mormon  Bible." 

As  late  as  1879  a  Mrs.  Amos  Dunlap,  of  Warren, 
Ohio,  wrote  of  having  visited  the  Rigdons  when 
she  was  young  and  of  his  taking  a  large  manuscript 
from  his  trunk  and  becoming  greatly  absorbed  in  it. 
His  wife  threatened  to  burn  it,  but  he  said,  "  No, 
indeed,  you  will  not ;  this  will  be  a  great  thing  some 
day." 

In  1820  the  Widow  Spaulding  married  Mr. 
Davidson,  of  Hartwick,  Otsego  County,  New  York. 
In  May,  1839,  the  Boston  "  Recorder  "  published  a 
statement  from  her  made  to  and  recorded  by  Rev. 
D.  R.  Austin,  of  Monson,  Mass.,  to  the  effect  that 
a  Mormon  preacher  took  a  copy  of  the  Mormon 
Bible  to  New  Salem,  Ohio,  where  her  husband  had 
lived,  and  written  much  of  his  manuscript,  and  read 
from  it  at  a  public  meeting.  She  said  that  many 
of  the  older  people  immediately  recognized  it  as  her 
husband's  romance,  and  that  his  brother,  John 
Spaulding,  arose  then  and  there  and  protested 
against  such  a  use  of  his  late  brother's  writings.  Rig- 
don wrote  to  the  Boston  "  Recorder  "  an  emphatic 
and  coarse  denial  of  this  fact,  and  said  that  he  had 
never  heard  of  such  a  man  as  Spaulding.  The 
reader  may  judge  whether  he  ever  had  or  not.  In 
August,  1880,  ''Scribner's  Monthly"  published  some 

39 


Three  Important  Movements 


testimony  from  Solomon  Spaulding's  daughter,  Mrs. 
M.  S.  McKinstry,  of  Washington,  D.  C.  She  certi- 
fies to  the  same  facts,  and  bears  testimony  to  the 
parallehsm  between  the  Book  of  Alormon  and  her 
father's  romance.  Mrs.  President  Garfield's  father, 
Mr.  Z.  Rudolph,  knew  Rigdon  well,  and  says  that 
"  during  the  winter  previous  to  the  appearance  of  the 
Mormon  Bible  Rigdon  spent  weeks  away  from 
home,  gone  no  one  knew  where.  When  he  returned 
he  seemed  very  much  preoccupied,  talked  in  a 
dreamy,  imaginative  way,  and  puzzled  his  listeners. 
His  joining  the  Mormons  so  quickly,  made  his  neigh- 
bors sure  that  he  was  in  the  secret  of  the  authorship 
of  the  Book  of  ]Mormon."  The  "  book  "  was  printed 
in  the  office  of  "  The  Wayne  Sentinel,"  Palmyra, 
N.  Y.  The  editor  was  Pomeroy  Tucker.  In  1867  he 
printed  a  book,  Origin  and  Progress  of  Mormon- 
ism."  In  it  he  says  that  during  the  summer  of  1827 
(the  "  Leaves  of  Gold  "  were  found  in  September, 
1827)  a  stranger  made  several  mysterious  visits  at 
Smith's  home.  "  He  was  afterward  recognized  as 
Rigdon,  who  afterward  preached  the  first  Mormon 
sermon  in  Palmyra." 

This  statement  is  corroborated  by  IMrs.  Dr.  Hor- 
ace Eaton,  who  lived  in  Palmyra  for  more  than 
thirty  years.  A  great  deal  of  similar  testimony  has 
been  secured  from  many  others.  As  early  as  1835 
Mr.  E.  D.  Howe,  of  Painesville,  Ohio,  printed  the 
full  testimony  of  eight  reliable  witnesses,  such 

40 


Spaulding's  Oberlin  Manuscript 


persons  as  John  Spaulding  and  wife  Martha,  Henry 
Lake,  a  former  business  associate  of  Solomon 
Spaulding,  Oliver  Smith,  /Varon  Wright,  and  Na- 
hum  Howard,  all  of  Conneaut,  Ohio.  They  all 
certified  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  Spaulding's 
romance  were  in  substance  identical.  Finally,  Rig- 
don's  brother-in-law.  Rev.  Adam  Bently,  and  Alex- 
ander Campbell  both  testify  The  Millennial  Har- 
binger," 1844)  that  as  much  as  two  years  before  the 
Mormon  Bible  made  its  appearance,  Rigdon  told 
them  that  "  such  a  book  was  coming  out,  the  manu- 
script of  which  had  been  found  engraved  on  gold 
plates."  In  spite  of  this,  Rigdon  claimed  that  he 
first  heard  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  from  Parley  P. 
Pratt  in  August,  1830.  In  the  light  of  this  evidence 
whence  think  ye  came  the  Book  of  Mormon  and 
what  is  its  claim  to  divine  authority?  Was  not 
Rigdon  Joseph  Smith's  angel? 

V///.  Spaulding's  Oberlin  Manuscript 

In  Oberlin  College,  Ohio,  there  is  a  genuine 
manuscript  written  by  ]\Ir.  Spaulding.  It  was  se- 
cured in  1834  by  D.  P.  Hurlburt  from  the  Spaulding 
family  and  by  him  given  to  E.  D.  Howe,  author  of 

Mormonism  Unveiled."  L.  L.  Rice  bought  out 
Howe's  business,  and  later  this  manuscript,  with 
other  of  Rice's  possessions,  was  sent  to  Honolulu. 
In  1884.  while  out  there,  President  James  H.  Fair- 
child,  of  Oberlin,  accidentally  discovered  this  manu- 

41 


Three  Important  Movements 


script,  and  together  with  Rice,  compared  it  with  the 
Book  of  Mormon.  Doctor  Fairchild  then  published 
the  statement  that  they  could  detect  no  resemblance 
in  general  detail.  Some  other  explanation  of  the 
origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  must  be  found  if 
an  explanation  is  required."  This  was  accepted  by 
the  Mormons  with  delight ;  they  published  it  far  and 
wide,  and  still  rely  upon  it  as  proof  that  Smith's 
find  "  was  genuine.  They  even  publish  said  manu- 
script, that  all  who  run  may  read  and  see  that  there 
is  no  resemblance  between  it  and  their  Bible."  In 
October,  1895,  President  Fairchild  had  learned  not 
to  assume  that  the  Oberlin  manuscript  was  the  only 
manuscript  that  Spaulding  ever  wrote.  He  then  was 
willing  to  certify  only  that  the  Oberlin  manuscript 
was  not  the  original  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  By 
1901  he  went  still  farther  and  wrote  thus: 

With  regard  to  the  manuscript  of  Mr.  Spaulding  now 
in  the  library  of  Oberlin  College,  I  have  never  stated,  and 
know  of  no  one  who  can  state,  that  it  is  the  only  manu- 
script which  Spaulding  wrote,  or  that  it  is  certainly  the 
one  which  has  been  supposed  to  be  the  original  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon.  The  discovery  of  this  manuscript  does 
not  prove  that  there  may  not  have  been  another,  which 
became  the  basis  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  The  use  which 
has  been  made  of  statements  emanating  from  me  as 
implying  the  contrary  of  the  above  is  entirely  unwarranted. 

(Signed)       James  H.  Fairchild. 

Had  Doctor  Fairchild  read  or  remembered 
Howe's  "  Mormonism  Unveiled,"  published  in  1834, 

42 


Spaulding's  Oberlin  Manuscript 


he  might  have  known  that  Howe  pubHshed  a  fair 
synopsis  of  what  is  now  known  as  the  OberHn 
manuscript,  after  showing  the  original  to  Spauld- 
ing's friends,  and  that  they  then  and  there  admitted 
it  to  be  a  manuscript  of  Spaulding's,  but  not  the  one 
which  they  asserted  to  be  the  original  of  the  then 
newly  published  Book  of  Mormon. 

They  also  repeated  that  Spaulding  told  them  he 
had  changed  his  original  plan  of  writing  and  gone 
back  farther  with  his  dates ;  also  that  he  had  adopted 
the  old  Bible  style  to  make  his  story  seem  more 
ancient.^  Disbelievers  in  Joseph  Smith's  "  find " 
have  never  claimed  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  was 
a  plagiarism  of  the  Oberlin  manuscript,  and  all  the 
powder  used  by  the  Mormons  on  that  subject  is  a 
wasted  explosive.  President  Fairchild's  first  as- 
sumption of  such  a  claim  made  possible  the  whole 
line  of  boastings  by  the  Mormons,  samples  of  which 
are  as  follows :  From  an  editorial  in  "  The  Deseret 
News  "  of  July  19,  1900,  "  The  discovery  of  the 
manuscript  written  by  Mr.  Spaulding  and  its  deposit 
in  the  library  at  Oberlin  College,  Ohio,  .  .  has  so 
completely  demolished  the  theory  once  relied  upon 
by  superficial  minds  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  was 
concocted  from  that  manuscript;  that  it  has  been 
entirely  abandoned  by  all  opponents  of  Mormonism 
except  the  densely  ignorant  or  the  unscrupulously 
dishonest."  Again,  on  May  14,  1901,  from  the  same 

^  See  Howe's  "  Mormonism  Unveiled,"  p.  288. 

43 


Three  Important  Movements 


paper,  It  is  only  the  densely  ignorant,  the  totally 
depraved,  and  clergymen  of  different  denominations 
afflicted  with  anti-Mormon  rabies  who  still  use  the 
Spaulding  story  to  account  for  the  origin  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon." 

One  has  but  to  read  what  Howe  wrote  in  1834 
as  to  the  character  of  the  changes  Spaulding  made 
in  his  second  manuscript,  the  one  he  took  to  Pitts- 
burgh and  left  with  the  printers,  received  again  for 
correction  and  read  to  his  neighbors  while  he  lived 
in  Amity,  from  1812  till  1816,  took  a  second  time 
to  the  Pittsburgh  printers  and  left  with  them,  the 
one  that  he  told  John  Miller,  of  Amity,  he  believed 
had  been  stolen  by  a  man  named  Sidney  Rigdon, 
who  was  about  the  office  (of  Patterson),  and  then 
read  the  historical  parts  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 
The  points  of  identity  will  be  apparent.  Note  also 
that  the  interpolated  religious  matter  is  in  the  exact 
language  of  the  King  James  version  of  the  Bible, 
though  claimed  by  Joseph  Smith  to  have  been  writ- 
ten centuries  before  King  James'  day.  Note  again 
the  teachings  of  the  very  things  for  which  Rigdon 
was  excluded  by  the  Baptists.  Still  further  note 
that  millennarianism,  baptism  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  a  common  ownership  of  property,  the  limita- 
tion of  faith  to  the  intellect,  and  other  doctrinal 
peculiarities  are  characteristic  of  the  religious  teach- 
ings of  the  Mormons  and  of  their  Bible,  just  as  they 
were  of  Rigdon  when  he  was  excluded  by  the 
44 


Spauldixg's  Oberlin  Manuscript 


Baptists  and  came  into  sympathy  with  Campbell  and 
Scott. 

The  brand  was  so  deeply  burned  in  by  him  before 
he  deposited  his  papers  with  Joseph  Smith  that 
nearly  a  century  has  failed  to  obliterate  it.  What 
about  those  names  found  in  common  in  both  the 
Mormon  Bible  and  Spaulding's  second  manuscript, 
names  such  as  Nephi,  Mormon,  Nephites,  Lehi, 
Lamanites,  Laban,  Zarahemla,  Amlicites?  Are  all 
these  mere  coincidences? 

What  about  this  testimony  from  Bennett's  "  Mor- 
monism  Exposed,"  published  in  1842?  But  who 
was  John  C.  Bennett?  A  quartermaster-general  of 
IlHnois,  a  mayor  of  Nauvoo,  a  master  in  chancery 
for  Hancock  County,  a  trustee  of  the  University 
of  Nauvoo,"  a  man  who  says  he  joined  the  Mor- 
mons in  order  to  expose  them.  Bennett  says  (pp. 
123,  124)  :  "  The  Book  of  Mormon  was  originally 
written  by  the  Rev.  Solomon  Spaulding,  a.  m.,  as 
a  romance,  and  entitled  the  "  Manuscript  Found," 
and  placed  by  him  in  the  printing-office  of  Patterson 
&  Lambdin,  in  the  city  of  Pittsburgh,  from  whence 
it  was  taken  by  a  conspicuous  Mormon  divine  and 
remodeled  by  adding  the  religious  portion,  placed 
by  him  in  Smith's  possession,  and  then  published 
to  the  world,  as  the  testimony  exemplifies.  This  I 
have  from  the  confederation,  and  of  its  perfect  cor- 
rectness there  is  not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  There 
never  were  any  plates  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 
45 


Three  Important  Movements 


excepting  what  were  seen  by  the  spiritual  and  not 
the  natural  eyes  of  the  witnesses.  The  story  of  the 
plates  is  all  chimerical."  When  Bennett  wrote  that 
he  hoped  that  Rigdon  and  the  Pratts  would  leave  the 
r\Iormons  and  join  him  in  his  crusade  against  the 
^lormons.  Hence  he  did  not  give  Rigdon  away  by 
name. 

IJT.  Conclusion 

The  rest  of  Rigdon's  story  is  soon  told.  Smith 
and  his  New  York  converts  joined  Rigdon  and  his 
followers  in  Kirtland,  Ohio,  in  1828.  A  year  later, 
at  Hiram,  Ohio,  both  men  were  dragged  from  their 
beds  by  an  indignant  mob  of  citizens  and  given  a 
coat  of  tar  and  feathers. 

Rigdon  was  made  temporarily  insane  by  this 
treatment.  Another  year  passed  and  he  was  elected 
one  of  the  three  Mormon  presidents.  Smith  and 
Williams  being  the  two  others.  From  time  to  time 
emigrant  parties  of  ]\Iormons  had  gone  from  the 
East,  Ohio  especially,  and  settled  in  Missouri.  In 
1838  the  Mormon  bank  at  Kirtland  failed,  and 
dragged  down  with  it  their  mill  and  store.  Sus- 
picions and  indignation  were  so  strong  that  both 
Smith  and  Rigdon  fled  to  their  followers  in  Cald- 
w^ell  County,  Missouri.  Then  came  a  record  of 
crime  and  bloodshed.  There  were  battles  with  the 
State  militia,  and  finally  the  arrest  of  Smith  and  Rig- 
don, charged  with     treason,  murder,  and  felony." 

46 


Conclusion 


They  were  tried  by  court  martial,  for  the  govern- 
ment at  Washington  regarded  the  situation  as  of 
sufficient  seriousness  to  term  it  a  civil  war.  It  was 
proven  that  Rigdon  advocated  persecution  and 
bloodshed;  that  he  urged  death  to  all  enemies  of 
Mormonism  and  to  all  cowardly  Mormons.  Both 
men  were  found  guilty  and  condemned  to  death, 
November  i,  1838,  but  both  escaped  from  jail  before 
the  sentence  could  be  executed. 

At  their  arrest  fifteen  hundred  of  their  followers 
fled  to  Hancock  County,  Illinois.  After  their  es- 
cape they  joined  these  followers,  and  the  town  of 
Nauvoo  was  started.  A  charter  was  secured  from 
the  Illinois  legislature;  the  Nauvoo  militia  was  or- 
ganized, and  Smith  was  the  commander.  He  was 
also  the  mayor  of  the  town,  and  in  the  religious  af- 
fairs no  one  surpassed  him.  Things  seemed  to 
flourish  for  six  years. 

Then  came  a  crisis.  The  governor  ordered  into 
service  several  hundred  men  and  had  Smith,  his 
brother  Hyrum,  and  a  few  others  arrested  and 
placed  in  the  jail  at  Carthage,  111.  In  the  after- 
noon of  June  27,  1844,  a  mob  of  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  men  with  blackened  faces  broke  into  the 
jail.  They  shot  the  Smith  brothers  dead  and 
severely  wounded  one  of  the  other  prisoners,  John 
Taylor. 

Four  years  after  that,  in  the  spring  of  1847, 
Brigham  Young  and  one  hundred  and  forty-three 
47 


Three  Important  Movements 


others  started  on  that  journey  to  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains that  resulted  in  the  founding  of  Salt  Lake 
City  and  the  Mormon  colonization  of  Utah. 

But  Rigdon  did  not  go  with  them.  At  Nauvoo 
he  and  Smith  had  become  enemies.  It  is  said  that 
Smith  had  offered  most  serious  insult  to  Rigdon's 
daughter.  However  that  was,  Mr.  Rigdon  there 
deserted  the  Mormons  and  brought  his  family  to 
Franklin  County,  Pennsylvania,  where  he  lived  in 
obscurity  for  many  years.  He  died  July  14,  1876, 
at  the  home  of  his  daughter,  in  Friendship, 
Allegheny  County,  New  York. 

Sidney's  oldest  brother,  L.  Rigdon,  m.  d.,  of  Ham- 
ilton, Ohio,  believed  that  Sidney  was  deranged,  the 
result  of  a  concussion  of  his  brain  in  boyhood,  he 
having  been  dragged  by  a  running  horse.  This  is 
probably  the  most  charitable  view  that  can  be  taken 
of  this  son  of  Allegheny  County,  Pennsylvania. 
That  he  had  ability  none  would  deny.  That  he  was 
either  a  fraud  or  a  fanatic,  or  both,  is  equally 
apparent  to  those  who  know  the  facts  of  his  life. 


48 


Date  Due 


! 

BX7322 .S79 

Three  important  movements :  Campbellism, 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1012  00038  6716 


